A blog about genealogy and thoughts about the various roots and branches of my family tree as well as the times in which my ancestors lived.Included are the West, White,and McFarland families.WARNING:DO NOT TAKE ALL OF MY FAMILY RECORDS AS GOSPEL. ALWAYS CONFIRM YOUR OWN RESEARCH!

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Thursday, July 17, 2008

SPEAK LIKE A NATIVE NEW ENGLANDER 9

If you visit Boston, you should know that certain sections ofthe city and their inhabitants have nicknames while othersdon't.

For example, South Boston is "Southie". There's even a song,"Southie is My Hometown." If someone's street address ison a street with a number or letter for a name(such as "DStreet") they're most likely from Southie.

East Boston is sometimes called "Eastie" but I'm not sure ifthis is as common as it was when I was a kid fifty years ago.

Jamaica Plain is sometimes called "J.P.". Again, this mightnot be as common as it once was, but if you mention "J.P." toa Bostonian of a certain age no explanation is necessary. Andno, the residents are not called "Jammies".

Dorchester residents may have attended "Dot High".(Dorchester High School) or talk about driving down "Dot Ave."I lived a few blocks away from "Dot High" when I was a kid.When former Dorchester residents meet for the first time andif they are Catholics they don't ask what street they used tolive on, they ask what parish they had lived in. I lived inSt. Matthew's Parish.

'Im told that some people from West Roxbury call themselves"Westies" although, again, it's a term I've never heard used.

Some areas such as Hyde Park, Allston and Mattapan don'tseem to have nicknames or at least they didn't when I lived inBoston.

1 comment:

I don't suppose that people from Brookline are Brookies? We spent a couple of years living there as grad students, and loved Boston, so it was fun for me to read this. I used to go up to Allston to look in the secondhand stores.